Nightly Routine
by TheGladElf
Summary: Living with Gotham's dark knight was going to be hard, but somehow, Selina had never figured this into the equation.


She woke before he did now. A year of marriage was apparently all it had taken for Selina's body to adjust to the nightmares that interrupted her rest nearly every night. It had been hard those first few months together, being woken by shouts and thrashing. The thought that Bruce might suffer from bad dreams had never occurred to her. With everything he'd been through it made sense, but she'd just assumed that bad dreams would be as cowed by him as the majority of the criminal denizens of Gotham had been. Despite it all, she was never really frightened by the nightly occurrence. Normally, it was easy to wake her husband, normally. He made her keep a small tranquilizer in the nightstand. She'd never deigned to use it, but it made him feel better.

They always came just before dawn. Slowly, Selina would depart from whatever dreams she'd been occupied with and return to a groggy existence. Pushing tousled hair away from her face, Selina sat up waiting for the signs that would tell her his dreams had turned sour. It might have been safer for her if she woke him now, but some nights the dreams were peaceful and he so rarely got a decent "night's" sleep. Propping the pillow behind her, the woman watched her husband. There was a peace about him when he slept. He actually looked his age asleep, with all the cares and worries of his world smoothed away. Gently, Selina brushed the hair away from eyes, much as she once did with Helena. If he hadn't started dreaming in the next few minutes, he wouldn't and she would be able to curl up next to him again and fall back asleep.

That was not to be her luck.

The peace left his face in an instant and his left hand began to twitch. Selina reached out and squeezed it.

"Bruce, wake up," she said. Most times this was enough to wake him. But not this morning. The twitching was affecting his whole arm and his face. In a moment, he would begin to call out. Bracing herself for what she knew would come when she did this, Selina leaned over her husband. Grabbing both his shoulders, she shook him, "Wake up, it's just a dream. It's alright," she called softly. There was a harsh growl as their positions reversed. His hand was at her throat, threatening, but there was no pressure. It was removed just as quickly as his mind moved past its instinctual reaction. His eyes apologized profusely.

Every night he tried to sulk on his side of the bed. And every night, Selina refused to let him. Wrapping her arms around his waist, she molded herself to him.

"You didn't hurt me," she whispered. She let her face rest against the back of his shoulders. He continued to sulk. She'd gotten more beaten up during their little tussles over the roofs of Gotham. She continued to prod him; he continued to say the things he said every night. Selina knew that if she left him, he would spend the rest of their sleep time brooding, and if they were going to be up there were other things she would rather be doing.

"You're tense," she purred. "Sit up." Getting up behind him, she began to massage the muscles across his back and shoulders. The set of his jaw told her that he was determined like always to not give in to her. And like it always had, his determination began to melt in the care of her…expert hands.

"I'm sorry," he said, his shoulders relaxing. With a sigh, she crossed her arms in front of his chest. Her fingers began to trace the scars and contours they found there. She let her had rest there. "You shouldn't have woken me up," he whispered.

"It's when you stay asleep that your dangerous," she said. Her fingers found four parallel marks etched into his skin. Her marks. "You won't hurt me if you're awake."

"But I could."

"Not, you won't," she said, kissing the back of his neck. He sighed, admitting that she was right. "You ready to back to sleep, or…" she let the sentence trail as she gave his chest a playful scratch. This time as her back made contact with the sheets, it awas pair of lips that pressed against her throat.

* * *

I think this one is pretty self explanatory. Well, okay, I guess it does need to be mentioned that I did not write this directly after reading a certain series. Seriously, I was going for a mirror of the early event in the end. Not for a vampire moment, but I guess...Well, I'm going to rewrite it, becuase I like it this way. That's all.


End file.
